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Ideas tagged with polymathy
Polymathy or polymathies: A typology proposal
Recent TED talks and books like "Range" and "The Polymath" generated great popular interest in the concept of polymathy. However, polymathy is still ill-defined in academia. Here, I propose a more systematic typology, based on the literature review carried out by Araki (2015; 2018). Polymathy...
Breadth and depth are positively correlated emergent properties of engagement
Scholars like Duckworth and Ericsson speak of an “ineluctable trade-off between breadth and depth” in expertise and knowledge acquisition. However, recent research [on polymathy](/ideas/753fac5b42e4c3cac704937e5be2ef39) shows a positive correlation between the two. This seeming contradiction ari...
Clarifying Heraclitus' criticism of polymathy as a bad craft
In fragment XXV (Khan, 1979), Heraclitus writes that polymathy is bad craft (kakotechnie). However, in that extract he is referring to the “pilling up” of learnings without the application of rigor and without good guiding principles. Notwithstanding, cognates of polymath’s termination "-math...
The Atlas of human Interests
Are the Japanese more interested in nanotechnology than the German? How many people want to become musicians? Are salespeople conscientious? In the Behavioral Sciences, studies on the diversity of human interests are scarce. Comprehending better how different groups of people decide to invest th...
Components of Expertise
Herling (2000:13) in his "Operational definitions of expertise and competence" outlined three basic components of expertise: knowledge; problem-solving; and experience. Here, I propose a more sophisticated differentiation that involves four types of knowledge: 1) Epistemic Knowledge; 2) To...
Relationships Between Polymathy as a Trait and Neurochemically-Based Individual Differences
Polymathy traditionally means “wide-ranging knowledge”. However, Sriraman(2009) and [Michael Araki](/users/7e5ab981b273ead711a70ba889e65ff0) [Polymathy_](/ideas/8e54bb477f4fe239e7a364af3d219c65) have proposed that polymathy can function as a trait. Based the idea that polymathic people distingui...
Proposed Definition of Polymathy and Polymathic Orientation
Polymathy is a multidimensional approach to learning and personal development that involves the pursuit, development, and application of knowledge characterized by three dimensions: breadth, depth, and integration. (1) Breadth refers to the diversity between the domains, areas, or subjects in wh...
Breadth, Depth and Integration: The Three Dimensions of the Polymathy Construct
At the core of the polymathy construct is the person's relationship with knowledge in three dimensions: depth, breadth and integration. Depth refers to expertise and to the cumulative penetration into certain subjects of interest (in which society circumscribes within domains). It entails [kn...
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